Martin Gets Carifta Aquathalon Medal For Antigua And Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda’s name was amongst the winners at the inaugural Carifta Triathlon Championships held in Barbados over the weekend while the country has made a bid to host the 2020 instalment of the annual event.

Seventeen-year-old Yahnik Martin grabbed a bronze medal in the aquathalon 16 -19 men’s division of the championships held at the Aquatic Centre in the Barbados capital, Bridgetown, but his teammate, Molijah Williams, did not complete his event in the 13 -15 age category.

Coach and former national athlete, Cordova “Popeye” Simon, said Williams, who is an open water swimmer, encountered difficulties in the pool but praised Martin for his efforts which led to a medal for Antigua and Barbuda.

“One of them had a little hiccup in the pool but we will overcome that in the future. This was the first one and we accepted that there would be hiccups because there were hiccups with other athletes too who were attending the games but I would say that I am satisfied with the performance,” Simon said.

“We have to bear in mind that there are so

many other swimmers

there who would have medaled at Carifta Games and other Caribbean games and even international and for us to have an athlete from Antigua who is not known as a triathlete it’s a great achievement,” he added.

Simon revealed also that Antigua and Barbuda could play host to the event in another three years once the country’s interest to host is looked upon favourably by the organisers.

“We even made a pledge that we want to be a host of that said games in the year 2020 so we are looking to do a youth development programme from now to the next three years so we can get our athletes ready,” the coach said.

“There are other countries that have already bid for next year and 2019 and so we put in our bid for 2020. So this is going to be an ongoing meet that we are going to use to develop our athletes,” he added.

Martin, Williams and Simon left last week for Barbados where they became the country’s first team to what is expected to become a yearly event.

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